Reno, Nevada and points south and west

This isn't exactly in sequence temporally, but that's life, I suppose.

So anyway, back in the dark ages of mid-April Cheryl (my lovely wife) and I went to the ICMA conference in Reno, NV. We had to leave immediately after the conference so we went down a bit early. We got there on Friday night.

Saturday morning we were wandering through Eldorado when we were accosted by one of those "Get free shows and free food" types who promised us we would only have to listen for a little while. They were selling vacation rentals that actually sounded like a pretty good deal, if we had any extra money, which like most people who are "married with children" we don't. But it only cost us a couple of hours, and we got tickets to a really good show and two free buffet dinners, so it wasn't too bad of a deal.

Some friends from Missouri, Mike and Leann, got to Harrah's where we were staying about noon. We hooked up with them and drove up to Lake Tahoe, which was doing an excellent ocean imitation due to the wind stirring up three foot white-capped waves.






















After Lake Tahoe, we had to get back to the hotel so we could go to our free show, which was called "FloorPlay". It was a quite interesting take on ballroom dancing, with a very modern flair. As I told Cheryl at the time, "'Dancing With the Stars' it ain't!"

The next day we drove to San Francisco with Mike and Leann. Our first stop, being touri, was of course the Golden Gate Bridge, which we walked across and back. I took several pictures along the way, including one of a sign which is on a lot of the beams of the bridge structure regarding the consequences of launching oneself from the bridge.

Not to make light of the wording of the sign or of the reason for its being there, because suicide is a sad thing, but isn't it obvious that jumping from the Bridge would be fatal? And wouldn't that be the reason for jumping in the first place?

On a much less morbid note, the gardens at the south end of the Bridge were quite beautiful.


From the Bridge we went to Fisherman's Wharf for lunch, then wandered the Embarcadero. On the water side is a submarine which one can tour for $9, and a battleship which costs $8 for the tour. We declined to do both tours.

One can get an excellent view of the infamous Alcatraz Prison from the Wharf as well.


From Fisherman's Wharf we went to Ghiradelli Square for chocolate (of course) then rode the trolley cars. More pictures in Part 2...